


as the carnations bloom

by aequinoctia



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Neighbors, Best Friends, First Kiss, Flowers, Language of Flowers, M/M, Suburbia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-11
Updated: 2021-03-11
Packaged: 2021-03-18 05:15:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,101
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29977920
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aequinoctia/pseuds/aequinoctia
Summary: Junhui presses his lips onto Wonwoo's, slipping the red carnation into Wonwoo's hair, and Wonwoo knew exactly what it meant; deep love and affection.
Relationships: Jeon Wonwoo/Wen Jun Hui | Jun
Comments: 6
Kudos: 35





	as the carnations bloom

**Author's Note:**

> important ! if you've seen this as an orphaned work, you're correct. i orphaned this work around a few months ago, but i realized that i preferred it more to have all of my works on one account, so i reposted it here. don't worry, nothing is being stolen and this work is 100% mine ^^

The suburbs was a boring place to live in, in Junhui's opinion. Nothing ever really happened. In fact, the latest and probably the most exciting news that circulated in this small neighborhood, was when their cop neighbor cheated on his wife—and that was six years ago.

Aside from the lack of drama that oddly piqued 10-year-old Junhui's curiosity, he thought his neighbors were boring. And he didn't have anyone that was just exactly his age. Two kids were a few years older than him, and there were three kids that were three years younger. And he was caught in the middle. Alone.

Basically, all he had were his school friends, and he had no one during the weekends, unless he invited people over.

So, you know... Boring.

But Junhui was only ten when he formulated those opinions. Now that he's way older, Junhui constantly, internally, thanked his parents that they decided to live here. He _loves_ it in the suburban area. 

It was quiet, but not too quiet that the silence became deafening. It was far from the city, but not _too_ far that it became inaccessible.

And if he was Goldilocks from the fairytale, he would say, "This neighborhood is just right!"

Junhui thinks that he is, indeed, fortunate. He would also like to mention the fact that when he was twelve, a boy named Jeon Wonwoo, who was just exactly his age, moved into the house right next to theirs.

Right in the midst of his childhood crisis about making friends, Wonwoo popped in like God himself had sent him for Junhui.

Obviously, he wasn't that much of a narcissist to repeat that thought in his mind, but it was an idea he liked to toy with; that he and Wonwoo have always been meant to be friends with each other.

His best friend was his next-door neighbor. Add that into Junhui's _list of things that are too good to be true_.

Currently, Junhui is sitting crossed-legged in front of Wonwoo, on the soft grass of their backyard. The area was littered with an assortment of flowers and plants. It was colorful, and organized in a way that didn't look distasteful to anyone's eyes.

"How does this look?" Wonwoo asks him, holding up a flower crown. "Do you think this suits me or you more?"

Junhui grins and takes the flower crown gently from Wonwoo's hands and places it delicately on Wonwoo's head. "Definitely suits you more."

Next to playing video games and riding their bikes around the place with their other friends, making flower crowns with Wonwoo was his favorite past time. It was something that only the two of them shared, and that fact alone has given the action a deeper meaning.

Wonwoo hums, taking Junhui's flower crown and examining it. "Why did you put geraniums and carnations together?"

"Does it look ugly?" Junhui asks, but Wonwoo shakes his head. "Then what is it?"

Wonwoo says nothing for a while, but as he places the flower crown on Junhui's fluff of hair, he states, "Geraniums symbolize stupidity; white carnations symbolize pure love—you know this."

"Ah, of course, I know this," Junhui lies, stumbling over his words. "My flower crown can be—it means—I can explain. Since geraniums are dumb, carnations are love, it can simply be interpreted as _foolish admiration_."

Wonwoo laughs this time. "You're lying!"

"I am not!" Junhui huffs, crossing his arms childishly. "That was what I thought of while I was making it!"

"No, you were stuttering and stumbling over your words!"

Junhui and Wonwoo stay there, arguing for minutes, bursting into laughter at almost every single word.

If anyone ever saw them like this—a pair of eighteen year-old boys laughing maniacally in a backyard with flower crowns messily placed on top of their heads—they would definitely be labeled as odd.

And most probably _gay_ by their old homophobic neighbors, which would be something that the both of them wouldn't try to deny.

Junhui feels that at this very moment, his happiness came first, before anyone else's opinion.

"Hey," Wonwoo says, looking at the salmon-colored sky as the sun sets. "It's getting kind of late. Are you going home or sleeping over?"

"I'm going home," Junhui says, brushing himself off as he stands up. He doesn't miss the way Wonwoo slightly pouts, so he offers a hand to him and tells him, "How about I'll change my clothes first, and then ask mom?"

"Okay." Wonwoo takes his hand, now grinning.

They both enter Wonwoo's house through the backdoor, and in the kitchen, they see Wonwoo's mother making dinner.

"Hello, boys," Wonwoo's mother smiles warmly at them. She looks at the top of their heads and her smile widens. "Flower crowns, again?"

"Oh, we forgot to take them off," Wonwoo realizes. He sets both of their crowns on the counter. "We'll leave these here."

Wonwoo's mother raises an eyebrow at him and Wonwoo sighs. "I'll come back for these and clean them up myself, mom."

Her gaze turns to Junhui, who was just listening amusedly at their conversation. "Aren't you staying for dinner, Jun?"

"I'll go home, auntie, but thanks for the invite," Junhui answers politely. "Maybe I'll come back after dinner, since Wonwoo said he wanted a sleepover."

"That's fine, too," She tells them nicely. And then she sternly looks at them, "Don't stay up too late."

Wonwoo pouts at his mother, _again_. Junhui is convinced that at this point, it's Wonwoo's secret weapon. "It's a weekend."

She sighs, not sounding really mad at all. "Fine, fine. 12 AM at most."

Junhui and Wonwoo nod in response. Wonwoo walks Junhui to the front door. "You better come back," Wonwoo jokes.

Junhui rolls his eyes. "Yes, you dummy."

Later that night, in Wonwoo's room, the both of them set up sleeping bags on the floor.

"You can stay in your bed, and I'll sleep in my sleeping bag," Junhui says. But Wonwoo doesn't listen and he continues preparing two sleeping bags. "Wonwoo."

"Yes?" Wonwoo blinks at him innocently. He drops the façade when Junhui pouts at him. "I don't like sleeping on my bed when you'll probably be uncomfortable on the floor."

"I won't be uncomfortable on the floor," Junhui reassures. "And it's fairer for you to sleep on your bed because this is your bedroom."

"Exactly. My bedroom, so my rules," Wonwoo tells him cheekily.

"We'll both be uncomfortable on the floor, then?"

Wonwoo taps his chin for a moment, in deep thought. And then a grin slips on his face like he just thought of the smartest thing in the world. "Then we'll both sleep on the bed!"

Junhui feels his face heating up. _Together? On the bed?_

Junhui was well aware that he and Wonwoo had been friends since middle school, but he seriously could not fathom the thought of _sharing a bed_ with Wonwoo.

Wonwoo looks at him weirdly, and Junhui guesses that he must look very red right now.

"Are you flustered?" Wonwoo teased him. And then his face turns into a concerned one. "It's okay, we don't have to."

Junhui waves him off. "No, no, it's fine! We're best friends, you know. What the hell."

There's a look in Wonwoo's eyes that Junhui can't seem to decipher, but it's gone as quickly as it came.

Junhui tries to avert their attention to the sleeping bags. "Should we keep these and move the blankets and pillows to the bed?"

Right now, Junhui feels as if there was an awkward atmosphere in the room. He wonders _why_. He and Wonwoo have been best friends for _years_. They've had sleepovers almost every single day, and now that they're grown-up teenagers, they suddenly feel tense.

It doesn't make sense at all.

Nonetheless, the both of them end up climbing into the bed, and Wonwoo's asleep as soon as his head hits the pillow. But there are a thousand of thoughts running inside Junhui's mind that kind of prevents him from sleeping.

It just felt so odd for him, because for the past few weeks, he'd been feeling a lot stranger and more self-conscious around Wonwoo.

Did he suddenly realize something about their friendship?

Now that they thought about it, there was something off, because although they considered each other as best friends, there were other people that treated them more... _platonically._

And then the thought hits him like a truck in the middle of the night.

_Do I have a crush on Wonwoo?_

Junhui's eyes wander to Wonwoo who was facing him, already sleeping soundly. Wonwoo's face was illuminated by the soft orange glow of the night light. Junhui thinks, _pretty._

And then he starts internally panicking again.

Not to mention that earlier today, when Wonwoo looked up to see the sunset, and his facial features were accentuated by the low shadows, Junhui's heart skipped a beat.

Wonwoo had always been good-looking and handsome, in Junhui's opinion, but now that he's seeing him in another light, he thinks, _has he always been this beautiful?_

Junhui closes his eyes tightly, as if he was begging to rid himself of those thoughts. And pretty soon, he slips into a deep sleep.

Junhui gets awakened by Wonwoo, some time around 5 AM. That was a wild guess that he made based on the color of the sky, but it turns out that he was actually correct.

He lets Wonwoo drag him down the stairs and through the living room, outside of the kitchen, and then they end up sitting on the cold and tiny benches of Wonwoo's backyard.

"What are we doing here?" Junhui yawned. He leans on Wonwoo, still slightly tired.

"We're going to watch the sun rise."

Junhui doesn't say anything, but he does sit up a little straighter. They stay like that for a while—sitting peacefully side by side, shoulders and knees touching.

Something about being here, engulfed in a comfortable silence was so intimate. Junhui feels like crying over nothing.

His eyes wander to the dark red carnations on one corner of the garden. He stands up and bends down to pluck one from the bush carefully.

He can feel Wonwoo's eyes on him with every move that he takes. When Junhui turns around, holding the carnation in his hand, he sees the sun rising slowly, and Wonwoo's _insanely attractive_ face was now basking in the glow of the soft daylight.

Junhui goes back and sits again beside his best friend.

"Why did you get one?" Wonwoo asks him, gesturing at the flower.

Junhui takes a deep breath. _Good question._ _Why_ did _he take one?_

He clears his throat, and with a lot of pent-up courage, he says, "I have a confession to make."

Wonwoo looks at him concernedly and weirdly, like Junhui had grown an extra head, but it wasn't judgmental or prejudiced in a way. And that makes him even more shy. "Are you alright?"

"I don't know," Junhui whispers, now seemingly weak at the sound of Wonwoo's voice. But, _God_ , he just wanted to get this over with.

Junhui stares down at the red carnation between his fingers, twisting and turning it around, like it was a secret lever for the ground to open up and swallow him whole. "I think I like you. A lot."

"Oh."

"Oh?"

"Yeah," Wonwoo giggles a little bit. Looking at Junhui with the same look in his eyes last night that Junhui couldn't comprehend. "Oh."

"Is that what you have to say?" Junhui asks him, pouting a little bit. "Are you not mad?"

"Why would I be mad?" Wonwoo asks him quietly, to which Junhui responds with a shrug. Taking Junhui's hand in his, he asks, "Do you want to know a little secret?"

Junhui nods.

"I really like you, too." Wonwoo says it in such a soft voice that makes Junhui want to melt on the spot. "For a while, now, I think."

Junhui's mouth opens unflatteringly. And then, with every ounce of courage in him, he asks, "Can I kiss you?"

Wonwoo replies so late that Junhui gets worried he might have made Wonwoo uncomfortable. He wants to apologize and run away and never show his face again. But just in time, Wonwoo nods. He pulls Junhui closer, holding him by the nape of his neck. They can feel their breaths, hot on each other's lips.

Junhui closes the small gap between them and presses his lips onto Wonwoo's, slipping the dark red carnation in Wonwoo's soft hair, just above his ear.

Wonwoo knew exactly what it meant; deep love and affection.

He kisses back.


End file.
